Don't panic and stop SIPs; right time to churn portfolio in favour of quality stocks: Vijayakumar

This is not the time to make aggressive purchases in the market, he advises.

The crash in the mother market - the Dow Jones plunging by 2,200 points in 2 days- has unnerved equity markets globally. The sell-off in the US has led to a global sell off.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services said the trigger for the sell-off in US is the fear that the Federal Reserve might be behind the curve. The latest reading in the wage growth in US shows wages have gone up by 2.9 percent.

With very low levels of unemployment, the fiscal stimulus induced by the Trump tax cuts can trigger spike in inflation, he added.

Consequently, the Federal Reserve tightening can be higher than the market expectation of three. This is the immediate trigger for the sell-off in the US, he said.

Since stock valuations are very high, the correction appears exaggerated, he feels.

Vijayakumar said Indian market was in tune with global markets in this down turn. In India also valuations are high, particularly in mid and small caps.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 1,274.35 points in opening, following global fall. It was down 1,028.07 points or 2.96 percent at 33,729.09 and the Nifty lost 311.30 points or 2.92 percent to 10,355.20 at 12:15 hours IST.

About 10 shares declined for every share rising on the BSE. The Nifty Midcap index was down 3 percent and BSE Smallcap index shed 3.7 percent.

This is not the time to make aggressive purchases in the market, he advises.

"But this is the right time to churn the portfolio in favour of quality stocks. Investors should not panic and stop SIPs," he said.